Big Pharma Revealed As Puppetmaster Behind TPP Secrecy

It is no secret that US healthcare corporations have been among, if not the biggest beneficiaries of Obamacare: by "socializing" costs and spreading the reimbursement pool over the entire population in the form of a tax, pharmaceutical companies have been able to boost medical product and service costs to unprecedented levels with the help of complicit insurance companies who have subsequently passed through these costs to the consumer, in the process sending the price of biotech and pharma stocks to levels not seen since the dot com bubble.

But when it came to the highly confidential TPP, it was unclear just which corporations were dominant in pulling the strings.

Now thanks to more documents published by Wikileaks, and analyzed by the NYT, it appears that "big pharma" is once again pulling the strings, this time of the Trans Pacific Partnership, which if passed will "empower big pharmaceutical firms to command higher reimbursement rates in the United States and abroad, at the expense of consumers" according to "public health professionals, generic-drug makers and activists opposed to the trade deal."

In other words, just like the narrowly-passed Obamacare was a gift for big Pharma, so America's legal drug dealers are now trying to go for another price boosting catalyst, one which however will involve not just the US but some 12 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Worst of all, the negotiations for the next price increase is taking place in utmost secrecy where "American negotiators are still pressing participating governments to open the process that sets reimbursement rates for drugs and medical devices."

As RT notes, the latest disclosure links the Healthcare Annex to the secret draft of the quite aptly-named "Transparency" Chapter of the TPP, along with each country's negotiating position. The leaked "Annex on transparency and procedural fairness for pharmaceutical products and medical devices" is dated from December 2014, with the draft being restricted from release for four years after the passage of the TPP into law.

RELEASE: TPP Transparency Chapter Healthcare Annex https://t.co/jc4hYqh06V #TPP #TTIP #TISA pic.twitter.com/xIlO4QCUu6

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 10, 2015

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